So I’ve only been doing this quilty thing for about a year and I have to admit I feel a little cheeky calling this a tutorial, so how about we just call this “newbie’s got a pretty good idea”. . . 😉

Working on the orange peel blocks from the midnight at the oasis QAL I’ve managed to find my groove when it comes to neat center points:

Looking at my blocks you can actually see how I have improved from one all the way to No. 14 (pictured above) but I have to admit there’s no way I’m going to go back and redo those first ones. . .

To prepare my pieces for basting, I find the center on my block and mark it with a Frixion pen:

and I put in a pin:

I then attach each orange peel onto the pin, you’ll notice below I skewer the orange peel just outside the drawn corner edge.

how’s that Hello Kitty band-aid treating ya?

Then I glue baste, just a little dot dead center.

Once dry, I remove the pin and fold the edge of my first orange peel. Being right-handed I needle turn going to the left, so I begin a couple stitches to the right of the center corner on my first orange peel. This way if I’m a little off I can fudge it just a little bit easier.

In the photo above, the scissors are showing you where the corner point is compared to where the needle is inserted.

Once the first one is done, I select to stitch the orange peel kitty corner to the first.

To make life easier you’ll notice that I pin down the other orange peels so that they’re not in my way.

keep on going. . .

And Bob’s your uncle (well I have an uncle Bob) you get an orange peel that’s a little bit neater than the last.

Newbie does have a great idea! I love those Frixion pens, but I have learned two things about them: the marks reappear if the sewing is frozen (don’t put quilt in freezer! :)) and I have heard rumours that they bleach colour from some fabrics (usually hand-dyed ones).